Re-Viewed: Santana at Taste
By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 5, 2005 6:29PM
Chicagoist headed down to the Taste of Chicago against our own advice to witness the incredible show that Santana puts on. Luckily our adopted Mexican/Puerto Rican adopted family arrived at 10 am to snag a spot near the Petrillo Band Shell so that we had somewhere to call home in the estimated crowd of 300,000 on Saturday evening.
Before the band took the stage, tribal music played over the speakers along with new-agey visuals on the jumbotron. Santana took the stage around 6 pm with "Jingo" and "Let Your Light Shine". Carlos rotated guitars throughout the evening starting with a beautiful orange-red one to a turquoise one and also a trusty acoustic guitar. Carlos and his players give one the idea that they would play this well, and have as much fun jamming, if they were just playing in their own backyard for themselves instead of entertaining thousands.
The music continued and the crowd danced and sang along until it was time for an extended drum solo giving the rest of the band a break. The drum solo featuring Dennis Chambers, who is clearly a ham, using both feet to keep an insanely fast bass beat while wiping his brow, chugging water and mugging around to the pleasure of the audience. When everyone came back on stage, Carlos talked about the Live 8 Concerts going on around the world and espoused his belief that the citizens of the world need to coexist in harmony and compassion.
Following were John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Woman", "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" and "Oye Como Va" all before the encore. During the encore we get to see Andy Vargas sans coat and hoodie (it wasn't that cold on the lakefront) singing "Smoothe" and "Corazon Espinado".
This free show at the Taste was absolutely amazing. Santana played for almost 2-1/2 hours! Most bands that have been around as long as Santana wouldn't give this long of a show even they were receiving over $150/seat. Santana's brilliance left Chicagoist wondering why we had never bothered to see them before. We won't make this mistake again.